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Mulberries
Who among you has ever tasted a mulberry?
You'll never see them for sale commercially - the trees take about five years to bear any fruit; the fruit are so squishy that they'd never survive transport anywhere without going bad almost instantly; the juice can stain deep red/purple with just a drop and to top all that, they're darned difficult to reach and pick.
However, they do taste rather good... Like a large squishy, purple raspberry that grows on a tree.
There are a few trees in this country that are said to be a legacy of attempts at the silk industry.
The last tree surviving in Poole was planted at the instigation of the R'end Peter William Jolliffe, longest serving rector of St James. Planted by various landovers to provide the Hugenots with the source of silk industry, it was the Mulberry that fed the silkworms. In this century, this particular specimen was saved by the vigilant flat occupiers who on witnessing the developer bulldozing the immediate area, called on their ward councillors in time for an injunction to be served, thus permitting the tree to be made safe.
In fact, the black Mulberry is the wrong kind for silk worms. They like the leaves of the white mulberry tree.
I first tasted mulberries on the tree that used to grow outside Poole baths. (I've no idea how I knew they were edible - memory has blurred that part of the tale). Loved them. Eventually managed to get a tree to grow in our garden. It's now actually bearing enough fruit to be worth it, though it requires real skill to avoid getting your clothes stained and to actually read the berries which grow in very inconvenient places.
You'll never see them for sale commercially - the trees take about five years to bear any fruit; the fruit are so squishy that they'd never survive transport anywhere without going bad almost instantly; the juice can stain deep red/purple with just a drop and to top all that, they're darned difficult to reach and pick.
However, they do taste rather good... Like a large squishy, purple raspberry that grows on a tree.
There are a few trees in this country that are said to be a legacy of attempts at the silk industry.
The last tree surviving in Poole was planted at the instigation of the R'end Peter William Jolliffe, longest serving rector of St James. Planted by various landovers to provide the Hugenots with the source of silk industry, it was the Mulberry that fed the silkworms. In this century, this particular specimen was saved by the vigilant flat occupiers who on witnessing the developer bulldozing the immediate area, called on their ward councillors in time for an injunction to be served, thus permitting the tree to be made safe.
In fact, the black Mulberry is the wrong kind for silk worms. They like the leaves of the white mulberry tree.
I first tasted mulberries on the tree that used to grow outside Poole baths. (I've no idea how I knew they were edible - memory has blurred that part of the tale). Loved them. Eventually managed to get a tree to grow in our garden. It's now actually bearing enough fruit to be worth it, though it requires real skill to avoid getting your clothes stained and to actually read the berries which grow in very inconvenient places.
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You always find dried white mulberries in snacky Iranian dried fruit and nut mixes (I have some in my cupboard that Dad brought me), and both colours get used in cooking and preserves a lot as well. The dark mulberries have more flavour but, like you say, they're not as versatile. Haven't tasted one of those in decades.
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fwiw, Wilkin and Sons (of Tiptree) do a very fine mulberry jam.
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